English

Discrete homotopic distance between Lipschitz maps

Algebraic Topology 2024-09-24 v1

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate a discrete version of the homotopic distance between two ss-Lipschitz maps for s0s \geq 0. This distance is defined by specifying a step length rr to which some homotopy relation corresponds. In spaces with a significant number of holes, where no continuous homotopy exist and the homotopic distance equals infinite, the discrete homotopic distance provides a meaningful classification by effectively ignoring smaller holes. We show that the discrete homotopic distance DrD_r generalizes key concepts such as the discrete Lusternik-Schnirelmann category catr\text{cat}_r and the discrete topological complexity TCr\text{TC}_r. Furthermore, we prove that DrD_r is invariant under discrete homotopy relations. This approach offers a flexible framework for classifying ss-Lipschitz maps, loops, and paths based on the choice of rr.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.14376,
  title  = {Discrete homotopic distance between Lipschitz maps},
  author = {Elahe Hoseinzadeh and Hanieh Mirebrahimi and Hamid Torabi and Ameneh Babaee},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.14376},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:52:46.295Z